The Wizard and the Knight
by Michaelssw0rd
Summary: Merlin/Arthur, Modern AU. It starts with a post-it notes and an awful lot of insults.


Gwen's Cafe was Merlin's favorite place in Camelot campus. It was always warm and alive, there was always someone laughing in the background noise and the chocolate brownies here had no match anywhere else in the entire campus. Merlin could spend hours here, finishing his latest assignment or his newest sketch, periodically supplied with fresh coffee by Gwen, who knew him well enough to know when he needed his caffeine fix, that is, all the time!

There was also the fact that entire back wall of the cafeteria was painted and graffiti in bright colors and it filled Merlin with pride and joy every time he saw it. 2 years back Merlin and half a dozen other students from art classes had spent a week of summer holidays practically camping in this room, painting whatever they felt like. It was messy and complicated and didn't make sense, was so so beautiful, and even after staring at it for the last 2 years every day, Merlin still found stuff that he had never noticed before.

Speaking of which, what was that! On the face of his wizard, his: the one with the purple robe with yellow stars and moon and long pointed hat, one of the biggest pieces on the wall , the one that took him many many hours to finish...was a yellow post-it note...

Getting up from the seat Merlin went closer, squinted to read the small but neat writing, and laughed.

It said _"To the idiot who painted this, moons and stars, REALLY?"_

Nobody had EVER commented on that before, even though Merlin had deliberately painted it that way, feeling playful and mischievous, and more so because he wanted to paint the age old sorcerer as a gay as himself.

Rummaging in his bag, he looked for his own post-it notes pad. He knew it must be here somewhere; he had only bought it last month.

"Aha!" He took out his pink pad, quickly jotting down a reply and pasting it next to the one already there.

* * *

Exhausted after the long long hours of study, and football, Arthur slumped into the nearest seat as soon as he entered Gwen's. Lance and Gwaine collapsed into seats next to him a moment later.

"I am never playing football on a week day again" Groaned Lance.

"Whose bloody idea was it anyway" Gwaine moaned, with his head down on the table, still breathless.

"Yours, you ass" Lance smacked him on the back of his head.

"Well I wasn't the one who insisted on playing till one of the team drops dead! It was all Princesses' idea! So bloody competitive" Gwaine said, giving him a look from between his bangs, tilting his head slightly.

That was the time when Gwen came over with 3 tall glasses of lemonade.

"You Gwen are an angel" Gwaine said with such feeling that it made her blush prettily.

"Marry me?" This was Arthur.

Gwaine snorted, "She doesn't have the right equipment for you princess! So knock it off"

"Ah fate cruel fate! I am sorry Guinevere, it wasn't meant to be" Arthur put his hand on his chest dramatically, making Gwen giggle.

"Stop being idiots you two, and drink your water, you look like you need it. You too Lance" She said and strode off to serve others.

Arthur and Gwaine both looked at Lance, and burst out laughing. His mouth was open, his eyes wide, and he had this dumbstruck and awed look on his face that made him look like a fish out of water.

"She just took my name, or was I imagining it?" Lance talked in a daze, which made them laugh even harder.

Lance had a huge crush on Gwen since he first saw her more than a year ago but never got the courage to even say hi, even though they came to the cafe almost every day, and Gwen passed him looks when she thought he wasn't looking. Of course Gwen had to be the one to make the first move.

Sipping the cool drink, he let day's exhaustion finally drain all energy from his body, making him feel lethargic. Looking around the room, his eyes, inevitably, strayed towards the graffiti wall again, to stare at the most ridiculous (and secretly his fav) of the paintings in it, the wizard. Then he noticed the pink next to the yellow of his post it, and walked towards it, curious, dragging his feet.

_"To the judgmental prat,_

_It's called fashion sense"_

Says the post it notes in a messy scrawl. It makes Arthur grin, and he goes back to the table to get his own pad, and write down a reply.

* * *

_"To the addle brain artist,_

_Fashion sense fit for a fairy, yeah!" _

Says the post it note. It makes Merlin frown, and then throw his head back to laugh because the idiot has NO IDEA how right he is. Fairy, ha!

* * *

_"To the big-headed git,_

_Perhaps he is assured enough in the power of his wand to not worry about his clothes"_

The bad innuendo makes Arthur cringe, but he can't help replying ...again.

* * *

_"To the loony moron,_

_What good is a wand, flashy and useless; Swords though, swords are useful: Sharp and pointy long and macho!"_

* * *

_"To his royal arseness,_

_Someone fancy them self a knight!"_

* * *

_"To the absolute goofball,_

_Better than imagining myself a wizard"_

* * *

The post-it note banter was quickly becoming the highlight of his day. Merlin had always enjoyed Gwen's but never before had he been this eager to be there earliest possible in the morning to see what the "Knight" as he had taken to calling him in his mind, had replied. Even though he kept checking every time he came to cafe (and no he doesn't pop in here a dozen times a day just in case), there is never a reply, until the morning next day. He assumed that whoever Knight is, must frequent the Cafe late at night.

_"To the clot pole,_

_What's wrong with being a wizard? They are powerful and wise"_

Laughing he attaches yet another pink post-it to the wall, which he suspects will soon be covered in the notes, but he doesn't want to take them down, and apparently Gwen and her staff doesn't either because they are still there, aren't they?

Walking out of the cafe with coffee in his hand and a huge smile on his lips, he pays no attention to the surroundings, until he almost crashes into a pillar. Shaken out of his day dreaming he looks around, and realizes he is in the children painting gallery/corridor, it was just a usual corridor until the teachers from junior campus of Camelot starting donating the paintings and drawings the student made for the yearly competitions, because there was no place to hang them in the junior campus . It's one of Merlin's fav parts of the campus, and he enjoyed looking at all that young talent, or sometimes absolute lack of it. Smiling he looks through the paintings he has seen many many times, until he spots a familiar yellow post it. It can't be... he quickly moves closer to check if it's what he thinks it is...

_"To the dollop head,_

_This...is what a real wizard looks like"_

Its then that Merlin notices the crayon drawing. It's of a man with a staff and long beard and a cloak. The laughter that bubbles up in his chest takes even Merlin by surprise and people around him look at him weirdly.

Taking out his own pad, he quickly writes down..

_"To the arrogant prick,_

_Sherbet lemon loving wizard, yeah, I can totally see where you're going with the macho-ness"_

Shit, he was so late for his class, there would be no escape from the Gaius's raised eyebrow today.

That's when it really starts, Arthur would walk around college with the post it notepad in his pocket rather than in his bag, and write a note on most unlikely of places, like that once on the carved long mirror in the corridor next to science department he wrote "_Do you see yourself holding socks and winking when you stand in front of it"_ and got a reply of "_At least I don't see a crown on my giant giant head, you delusional bastard"_

He had started using a thesaurus to find all the synonyms of the word idiot, and stupid, and when that finished, antonyms of intelligent, wise...and now he just winged it, wrote whatever insult came to his mind even if he was fairly certain it wasn't a word.

Merlin started paying attention to his surroundings because he ended up finding a note on weirdest of places. Once he found a note in a BUSH, saying "_just wondering if you would find it , wizards are communing with nature sort of people aren't they?" _

In the couple of months they had christened, so to say, every department of the campus, and had taken it upon themselves to take off the post it's when they became too many in one place and putting them on the wall on Gwen's, which was almost entirely covered with them by now.

It took a paper taped next to their recent banter on whether the notice board should or should not be green in color( "_It's the color of nature you fool"_ said the wizard "I_t's an eyesore, that's what it is, you pretentious little shit_" said the Knight) saying _**"To the Wizard and the Knight, Enough of foreplay. Kindly get a room you two"**_ for Arthur to realize that they have been actively...flirting for the last 2 months.

Suddenly breathless with panic and excited, Arthur decided to take his chances, because the "Wizard" was funny and smart and Arthur realized that he was already kind of extremely fond of him and that he wouldn't mind dating him. Scratch that! The idea of dating him filled his stomach with butterflies. That worried him because the wizard might be a girl(even if he had taken up using male pronouns for him long time ago), or if the universe hated him enough... it could be a straight guy!

Before he could chicken out, he took out his post-its and started writing.

It took him half a dozen crumpled notes which ended up in his bag to finally write,

_"So how about it cabbage head, _

_wanna go out with me?"_

Feeling tense and extremely awkward he rushed away before the urge to snatch the note away and crumple it took over.

It was when he was taking out his notebook in the class that he realized that he had just insulted someone while asking them out. Banging his head on the table was only the most natural reaction.

* * *

Merlin saw the note just a few hours later, and for the first time ever, he didn't reply and walked away. When he entered his room ,Will was already there, so he just went and collapsed on his bed, hiding his face in the pillow.

"What's wrong?" Will asked, throwing a crumpled paper on his head.

"Nothing.." He mumbled.

"Merlin..." Now he sounded genuinely worried.

"Knightjustaskedmeout"...he spoke into the pillow.

"Merlin I swear to God if you don't start making sense soon I will beat your already empty brain with this pillow so much that you would see stars for the entire day"

"Knight just asked me out" He said turning his head a bit , but still hiding behind the pillow.

"About time...and?"

"And? What do you mean and" suddenly sitting up and gesturing wildly..."I don't even know if it's a guy or not even though I am fairly certain he is male, but what if he's not even gay! What if he thinks I am a girl! Not to mention he is a prat and arrogant git and he might be A SIXTEEN YEAR OLD and then I will be the giant creep and..." he stopped mid rant, when he noticed the expression on Will's face.

"You know who Knight is" It wasn't a question.

"Yeah... Gwen told me ages ago"...

"Who is it...tell me Will...I need to know"

"Nope...I am not interfering in this...and it won't be fair to Knight if you have the upper hand, soooo what did you reply to his request"

"I haven't replied yet... CAUSE I DON'T KNOW! AT LEAST TELL ME HE'S LEGAL"

"Yeah he's legal age, that's all I am telling ya"

"I hate you"

"I love you too Merls...now go reply"

* * *

Arthur was a bundle of nerves, and it showed in his game. He had never played this distracted a game in his life so it wasn't unexpected when Gwaine and Lance cornered him afterwards.

"So tell us what's wrong" They loomed above him.

"I might... I might've" He couldn't get the words pass the lump of panic in his throat..

"What princess..."

"I might have asked Wizard out..."

"Oh!" Lance and Gwaine looked shocked for just a minute, until they started laughing...

"FINALLY!" Exclaimed Gwaine...

"I was thinking if you would ever get around to doing that, seeing as both of you were so totally smitten, writing notes when the other wasn't seeing" Said Lance.

"As if you can talk Lance...wait...you two KNOW who Wizard is..."

"Well yeah...Gwen told Lance when they went out last week"

"And before you ask...she told me not to tell you so nope, this is you taking your chance, and I am not giving you anything"

"Did I ever tell you how much of crappy friends you two are" he grumbled and pushed past them to check the notice board again, and no it wasn't his tenth time, it was only his eighth!

* * *

_"To the conceited bastard,_

_Sure, Gwen's at 6:00 pm tomorrow? You can't miss me"_

* * *

What the hell did that mean, you can't miss me, Arthur thought as he entered the cafe at exactly 6:00pm , not the least bit because he was waiting outside for the last 15 minutes, not wanting to appear too excited by arriving early. There were more people there than he expected at this time of the day, and he looked around searchingly, trying to find the wizard.

It caught him off guard.

Right next to the painting of the wizard in the purple robe, sat "the wizard" fidgeting about nervously in purple robe, with something yellow on it, and he couldn't be sure yet but he could bet everything he had that they were stars and moons!

Damn, he really couldn't miss him! Nor could he help the full bodied laugh at the sight!

That caused the wizard to look up, the nervousness vanishing and in its place a huge grin appearing. Shaking his head Arthur went over, still chuckling!

"I am disappointed there is no hat!" Was the first sentence out of his mouth! It really was no wonder why he was still single.

"Well I see no sword either, so I am still living up to my little title unlike you!"

"Oh the sword is there, it just hasn't decided if it's happy to see you yet" And there goes his mouth again.

Wizard spluttered, turned a pretty shade of pink, and then laughed.

"You really are a puffed up pompous prat aren't you!" He said, fondly.

"Shut up! You like me anyway" He said, sheepish, and then froze, and he was sure his face was turning red.

"Let's start over, I am Merlin".

"Really? Merlin? No wonder you call yourself a wizard"

"Are you forgetting people don't insult each other on first dates! You cheeky bugger!"

"And you're missing your point , Merlin!"

"Ass!"

"Moron"

"Bonehead"

"Twit"

"Gorgeous asshole"

"Dimwi...what?"

"Would you just tell me your name already!"

"Um, yeah...it's Arthur!" And if he turned pink under the look Merlin gave him, nobody could blame him.

They stared at each other for a few seconds and then they both burst out laughing.

"We are both pair aren't we, Merlin and Arthur... The wizard and the Knight!"

"King! The wizard and the king Merlin!...if you're gonna compare us to history then at least get the facts right!"

"And there he goes again, the pompous arse!"

"Can we just order already before going into another show off of our thesaurus knowledge?"

"Whatever you say my liege" Merlin said, eyes twinkling with mirth!

As they waited for the food, exchanging insults and enjoying each other's company more than they had ever done on first dates, Arthur wondered where all the awkwardness he expected from this meeting was. It all seemed kinda silly now, cause Merlin was a little bit perfect, with his cheekbones and smile and his blue, blue eyes, and his hair that looked like they have never been brushed, and those full pink lips that looked so soft, that only thing Arthur wanted at this moment was to kiss them.

"Where is your brain Arthur. If it exists ,it's apparently not here" Merlin's voice startled him from his reverie.

"I was thinking..."

"You can think?" Merlin exclaimed.

"Shut up! So I was thinking...you have lips, I have lips...interesting"

Merlin looked absolutely shocked, with his mouth hanging open for a second, and then he doubled over laughing. Laughed so much that tears started coming out of his eyes, and the sight of him made Arthur laugh too.

"That, was awful! One of the worst pick up line EVER! Nobody is ever gonna kiss you with lines like those!"

And yet, outside the cafe, after having dinner and exchanging numbers , Merlin drew Arthur close, bent his head slightly, and kissed him full on his lips, their hands going around each other's waists. It was short and chaste and kind of perfect.

Neither of them realized while walking towards their dorms that they had both a sticky note attached on the back of their jackets. One in yellow saying "_The harebrained sorcerer"_ and the other in pink saying "_The snotty __Knight __King"_

* * *

A/N : So its my first fanfic ever okay? be nice..:D also i hope you enjoy it cause well...i had this idea STUCK in my head... it wouldnt leave me alone till i write it..!


End file.
